Down Only 4%

Since I only started this portfolio at the beginning of May and have been tip-toeing my way into the market a couple of percent at a time, I’m only down 4% on my portfolio. I consider myself lucky.

Yet, that 4% still adds up to a lot of money on a dollar basis. Given a choice, I would rather have NOT lost 4%.

My biggest loss turns out to be VTI – Vanguard Total Market Index. I can’t be too mad about that. VTI invests in every company on the US stock market – big and small. 3000 companies in all. An index like that is a bedrock of my portfolio. Since I’m betting on “everything”, some will win, and some will lose. It will eventually come back.

My second biggest loss is MFC- Manulife Financial. No way! I like MFC a lot. They pay a solid dividend above 6%, and the dividend seems safe. Only 25% of Manulife’s earnings go to the dividend. Only 11% of their cash flow. It’s a safe 6% right now.

Plus, the stock has quite good cash flow. By some measures, it’s significantly undervalued.

“Manulife Benefits From Higher Interest Rates, but Inflation, Weak Equity Market Are Headwinds” – Morningstar Analyst

I would consider buying more Manulife. I already did once the price started to drop. But I would buy more.

I think the market is mispricing this company.

The third-worst performer in my portfolio is FNGS – The FANG+ ETN. I still think Facebook, Google, Apple, Amazon, et al. are money-making machines and will quickly recover. But I guess we’re now months away from that. The market has turned against them again.

I might consider selling my FNGS or cutting my exposure in half. Taking the loss and living to fight another day. I also own MGK, so I’m doubly exposed to this volatile area.

Believe it or not, my most recent purchases are my fourth biggest losses. The low volatility ETFs. They were not supposed to fall as much as the market! There’s a lot of volatility in low volatility.